"And he always tells me to stop when I tap my foot while I work, and sometimes he randomly brings coffee for Congressman Washington or his chief-of-staff Charles Lee because he is a major brown noser. It's so annoying!" Alexander continued the rant he was currently on after finishing the fettuccine alfredo he had shoved in his mouth moments before.

"Alex, I took you out to dinner to celebrate getting a job for Congressman Washington, not so you could complain about Thomas Jefferson all night," John hoped that saying that would shut Alexander up.

"I know, I know. He's just so infuriating like all the time," Alexander just kept on going. After he received an annoyed look from John he quickly put on a sweet smile and said, "What I mean is, thank you for taking me out to dinner, you're the best."

"Mhm, that's more like it," John laughed. "Anyways, Alexander, I'm really proud of you. This is just one step in the big future you have ahead of you," he smiled wide at the boy sitting across from him, who blushed deeply.

"Yeah, thanks, but its really not that big of a deal...So, how was your day?" Alexander deflected the attention onto curly haired boy.

"Learn how to take a compliment, jeez," John scoffed, earning a glare from Alex. "And my day was wonderful; thank you so much for asking."

"What'd you do?" Alexander absentmindedly swirled the straw in his water with one hand, the other hand propping up his chin as he leaned in to pay John as much attention as possible.

"Angelica and I helped monitor the effects a new drug has on HPV caused mutations in the HER2 gene that leads to the formation of an aggressive form of cervical cancer. We used HeLa cells, and it- Hey!" John stopped abruptly to call Alexander out for what he had started to do, and he gave him a playful shove on the shoulder. "Don't ask about my day if you don't wanna hear about the scientific aspects! I let you rant to me about economic policies and your personal opinions on Supreme Court rulings without shutting my eyes and making snoring sounds!"

"You gotta admit, the snoring was a nice touch," Alexander, who was holding back giggles, defended himself. "And, for the record, you have fallen asleep on me once for real," he crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair.

"Oh, really? When?" John questioned, amused. He couldn't wait to hear the long winded explanation the older boy was about to give.

"It was two weeks ago on the Wednesday I slept over after the wifi in my apartment went down, and I needed to finish something for Washington. I was telling you about the effects Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 18 of the Constitution, know as the Necessary and Proper Clause or the Elastic Clause, has on the interpretation of the United States Constitution as a flexible document," Alexander finished, taking a deep breath and a sip of water afterwards to replenish himself. Then he smiled, a hint of sass on his lips, and recrossed his arms as he waited for his boyfriend's reply.

"No wonder I fell asleep," John laughed, though he had to admit he was impressed, like usual, with Alex.

"Well, at least I'm not as big of a nerd as you are!" Alexander teased.

"Me? The bigger nerd? You speak like you are reciting from a law textbook!" John retorted back.

"Well, not enough people are educated about the workings of our country now a days, so I have to make up for people like you," Alex smirked as he put another forkful of pasta into his mouth.

"Excuse me, but I happen to have a vast knowledge of things outside of biology. Come on, ask me a question about any Supreme Court case you want, I'll answer it," John challenged, sipping his sweet tea that he had to dump extra sugar in, much to Alexander's amusement, because it was not sweet as his Southern standards.

"Um...Roe v. Wade," Alexander threw a court case out for John to answer.

"Weak! Come on give me one that's actually hard," John laughed at the way Alex pouted a little when John said the case wasn't good enough.

"Okay, then, Chisholm v. Georgia," Alexander seemed pleased this time with the one he had picked and the look in his eyes was daring John to try to answer.

"That one is easy! Chisholm v. Georgia was heard in 1793, and the Chief Justice was John Jay. A man from South Carolina sued the state of Georgia to collect money owed from the Revolutionary War; the Court ruled against Georgia which was so controversial lead to the creation of the 11th amendment, stating that no person or foreign country could sue a state. There are exceptions of course," John finished, looking extremely proud of himself as he drew his answer to a close. "Fuck with me," he added a moment after with a sassy look just to really stick it to Alexander.

"That was really freaking hot," the boy across the table spoke after a moment, the most sincere of looks on his face, causing the other boy to break out in a fit of laughter.

"Well, good, now I know how to turn you on," John said in between giggles. He felt a blush spreading across his cheeks, no doubt making a contrast with his numerous freckles.

"Shit, babe, its not like you have to do that much to turn me on. I mean, all you have to do is sit there with that gorgeous face of yours, and I go crazy. I definitely go crazy when we are at home in bed and you touch-" but Alexander didn't get to finish his thought because someone cleared their throat quite loudly right next to their table. Both boys turned their head in the direction of the noise to see a waiter standing there, his face extremely red, as he was obviously very embarrassed. John, whose face turned stricken with mortification, quickly reached out and grabbed the bill from the man while Alexander struggled to suppress a giggle. John fumbled to get his credit card out of his wallet to slide into the bill's holder as the waiter stood awkwardly, looking off into space to avoid making eye contact with either boys. John gave the bill and credit card back to the waiter, giving him an apologetic look, before turning his attention to the boy across the table.

"You are such a bitch!" John exclaimed to Alexander, who was now silently laughing into his hands, his elbows resting on the table and his shoulders shaking up and down. "You knew he was there the entire time," he accused.

"No, I didn't!" Alexander defended himself, his head instantly snapping up out of his hands to shoot the rebuttal.

"Yes, you did! He was standing to my left and a little behind me, so he was in front of you and right in your line of vision," John said back, humorously exasperated by his boyfriend.

"Okay, yeah, but, in my defense, its really fun to get you embarrassed. Its extra entertaining when you get annoyed with me because your southern accent comes out even stronger than normal," Alexander gave the reasons for his tomfoolery. "Please, stop looking like you want to murder me," Alex pleaded after the annoyed look on John's face strengthened.

"Trust me, I've already planned out four ways to kill you without anyone ever finding out just tonight. That doesn't count all the other creative ways I've thought of in the past few months," John joked, soundly a laugh at the look of extremely faux worry Alexander's featured morphed into.

"You should write them in a journal," Alexander suggested with laughing tone.

"I already do," John said with a wink, earning a giggle from the boy across the table. Making Alexander giggle never failed to make his chest swell with happiness. "Hey, real quick, do you think we could talk about what happened this morning?" John asked Alex, watching the smile on the boy's face promptly fade. As much as he was enjoying this moment, he knew that he needed to bring it up.

"What about it?" Alexander decided that feigning ignorance was the best course of action.

John saw right through him. "You know the whole you getting defensive about your past and then crying in the shower thing? That."

Alexander cringed at John mentioning his crying; he had so hoped the younger boy hadn't heard that. "I'll talk about it, but now doesn't seem like the right time. Tonight is suppose to be a happy night, and I don't want to ruin that. Another time?" Alex mentally crossed his fingers and his toes, hoping this would work.

With a small sigh and a defeated half-smile, John nodded, "Okay, another time."

---

John enjoyed the summertime in New York City. It was a lot less humid and there were substantially less mosquitoes as compared to back home in South Carolina. However, no one else seemed to share his sentiments and spent their time shut inside their homes with the A/C cranked all the way.

On this particular sweltering July day, John sat under a large oak tree somewhere in the mass expanse of Central Park waiting for Marquis and Hercules to join him. His back was up against the bumpy bark of the tree and his legs laid out in the grass in front of him as he flipped through the pages of the latest book he was reading: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. He enjoyed the parallels he drew between himself and the narrator; both were young, colored, southern boys who had moved to New York City to find a future and had to adjust to life in their harsh new environment. Granted, the narrator probably had it a lot worst than John did, but John always liked to find ways to relate to the characters in the novels he read. It was more fun that way.

"Hey, Johnny Boy!" John was snapped back to reality by the deep voice of Hercules Mulligan greeting him.

"Hi, y'all," John called back to Hercules and to Marquis, who was following closely behind.

"I got sandwiches at one of the corner delis around here," Mulligan told John as he plopped down beside him. "And Laf has a blanket and bottled water," he continued.

"Wow, its a proper picnic!" John laughed, overall just happy to be spending time with his friends. It felt as though it had been forever since he had seen them. They had all been so busy; this was one of the only free days all three boys had the entire summer. After Lafayette spread out the blanket, John and Hercules moved to join him, and they all dug into the delicious sandwiches.

Discussion picked up as the boys finished their food. Mostly chatting about summer internships and trips. There was a lot to catch up on. Of course, the conversation eventually landed on Alexander; John's friends were all too eager to get the latest scoop on the relationship. Fortunately for them, John loved gushing about his boyfriend. He told them about recent dates and how serious he thought they were even though the relationship was only around two months old. John was only occasionally interrupted by dirty comments or kissing noises, to which he rolled his eyes.

"So, the honeymoon phase seems to be treating you well," Lafayette commented. "Any problems?" he wanted to hear things that were more juicy than where the boys ate the last time they went out together.

"Actually, yes, there is something. I was meaning to get some advice on the matter," John began, slowly.

"Go on," Hercules urged him to continue.

"Okay, so Alexander is really secretive about his past. I don't know anything about him prior to when he moved to New York a couple years ago when he was 19. And I'm not sure if he's just being secretive or if he doesn't trust me enough or if he has emotional issues about it that are blocking him from telling me or something like that. I just don't know what to do because if he's having problems, I want to help him, ya know?" John finished, taking a sip of his water and letting the two other boys process the information.

"Well, have you really discussed with him that you want to help?" Lafayette questioned.

"And that nothing he says is going to scare you off because you're in it for the long haul?" Mulligan continued the line of questioning.

"No...and no. We haven't really talked about it at all actually," John admitted.

"Then how do you know that its a problem?" Mulligan smiled a little bit at John. He had come to understand how John overthought problems and blew details out of proportion when it was related to things he really cared about; Hercules couldn't begin to imagine how much Alexander made John's head spin.

"Because last week he stayed over at my house, and in the morning when I asked him about his family, he got super guarded and then I heard him crying in the shower. I tried to bring it up with him later that night and then once again a few days ago, and he completely avoided it both times," John explained. "The only time he's talked about his past at all was once when he was drunk," John added.

"Well, then just get him drunk!" Hercules shared the conclusion he had reached. It earned a look from John and a small laugh from Lafayette, who also then got a look from John.

"Really though, John, just make it really clear to Alexander that you want to know every part of him, even the messy parts, and that you'll help him in any way he needs and eventually he'll tell you when he's ready to. If its something that causes him emotional trauma, don't force him to tell you because that might do more harm than good. Wait till he's ready," Marquis advised his friend, who was listening carefully and nodding his head in agreement.

"I'll let y'all know how it goes," John concluded the conversation. "Anyways, Herc, tell us about your trip to Morocco. The photos you posted on Instagram were amazing," he changed the subject and sat back listening to Hercules describe the sights and smells of the central market in Marrakesh.

-----

IM BACK Y'ALL! i realized how many of y'all still are reading this, so it would kinda suck if i didn't finish it. the beginning with alex and john i've had written since like last july lol.

also just a little thing because i see people comment about it: yes i know real historical lafayette's name was gilbert. i decided that in this little AU, his parents named him marquis. so y'all don't need to be correcting me.

IM EXCITED TO KEEP WRITING THIS!